One of the very best ways to grow, and imagine what an amazing world it would be, if every month, each one of us human beings was undergoing a 30 day experiment, trying something new, just to see how we like it. To detach from all dogma and be open to exploring a new way of being, if only a change so small as brushing with your left for 30 days or exercising for 20 minutes or reading for 30 minutes or sitting and listening to the breathe for 5 minutes or expressing gratitude for 10 minutes…so many wonderful 30 day challenges that can really expand one’s appreciation for life and increase joyfulness.

Also…compassion.

Compassion has been vibing real hard. It’s pretty much fool-proof. (Note: I might have just made up the term fool-proof, but maybe it makes sense?)

30 day experiments with becoming more compassionate, towards the physical body, ‘other’ human beings, all forms of life, the earth, the universe…so beautiful.

When you align with compassionate action, any action is good action. Being led by compassion, you’re pretty much always safe.

And, potentially – THEORY – elevating food choices alone has the potential to radically enhance the quality of life on this planet. Eating for health rather than for satisfying the taste buds is one of the most mature and responsible decisions one can make. It’s also a great way to treat the physical body with more compassion as well as demonstrate more compassion to all forms of life as well as to the earth.

So hey, why not bring a bit more compassion into your life?

Co-create a more compassionate world!

Grow! One step at a time…30 days a time…however you’d like…be free from the dogma and creatively explore this wonderful world 🙂

A new month is about to start very very soon…what will your 30 day challenge be to yourself?

Maybe you’ll journal in the evenings, or express gratitude in the mornings, or go for a walk and appreciate nature, or catch up with an old friend every day…embrace whatever novelty you’d like to add. And, even better, maybe have your 30 day challenge adventure you outside of your comfort zone. Talk to a stranger every day, and even compliment them! Whoa, that’d be crazy fun, right? Or even more epic…hug a stranger every day! Of course, after enough conversation and hugs and smiles and laughter…you realize no one is a stranger – the entire universe is a reflection of your true self – and you’re really just hugging yourself 🙂 Love one, love all.

What’s your relationship with the universe? What is your greatest purpose? What’s your greatest fear? What holds you back from enjoying life even more?

What’s working? What’s not?

What do you want to do more? What do you want to do less of?

You are the creator of your life. Focus on that which you desire and live your dreams. Realize your heaven on earth…step by step 🙂

Here’s to celebrating round numbers and benchmarks that might not mean too much, but at the same time might be packed with immense significance. It’s all subjective, right?

Just as an aside…

The other day, talking with a few friends about gravity, I realized afterwards that gravity is flippin’ perfect for us! Sure, it’s pushing us down against the ground, but it’s pushing us just the right amount. If gravity was any more powerful we’d be crushed, and if it was any less powerful we’d float away. It’s almost like…some Genius designed this whole thing 😉

So grateful for the Mysterious Creative Power of the Universe 🙂

Also…another fun aside…been working with the intention…courtesy of Steven Pavlina…”I intend to perceive reality accurately.” I figure this intention is very much along the lines of knowing the truth, i.e. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!”

Forgiveness is awesome, and it’s something that is available to us every moment. All you have to do is ask! “Ask and you shall receive.”

And, once you ask, trusting and knowing completely that you have received and will continue to receive in Perfect Time in a Perfect Way, you can express gratitude!

Ask for forgiveness and express gratitude for receiving the forgiveness. Then you can engage fully in the Present Moment!

What more holds us back from living in the Present Moment from the unnecessary burdens of guilt / shame / regret that we might carry around with us? To let go of these burdens, all you have to do is let go! Put them down on the ground for no one to carry, because no one has to carry those burdens. Let God handle it. The universe knows what to do.

Ask for forgiveness and be free! Let go of the past – it is dead! Yet it is easy to hold onto mentally and to cling to something other than the reality of Here and Now…but why not embrace what you got? Right before you, right here and right now, there is an abundance! Open the eyes to see the beauty. Look for the good and you will find it abundantly. Focus on what you want to create. Give your attention to what you want to grow. Embrace the power of your thoughts and the power you have to create whatever reality you desire.

The journey in life….grow in love! As best as you can, as much as you can, love everyone and everything no matter what! The only ‘reason’ any of us would choose to not love is because of a superficial judgment we’re making…but doesn’t the Bible say “Judge not lest ye be not judged,” ? Embrace your ‘not knowing,’ humble yourself a bit and love more abundantly! Smile at everyone, embrace all forms of life. Send love and gratitude to everyone. If nothing else, it feels good. And soon you’ll find that love and gratitude returning back to you in wonderful ways.

Abundance is your birthright! Joy is your birthrright! Enjoy What Is. Love Yourself, Love the World. Love the Seen, Love the Unseen. It’s all mysterious. How good can you feel? You have the Power!

Key word: choose.

As Ellen DeGeneres Guru once illustrated on a notecard in a dressing room, “I choose love.” Boom! That simple. Forgive.

What is better than experiencing a little bit of pain when you’re completely aware of how you accepting the pain is contributing to the greater good?

Especially regarding physical pain…

The other day,sitting in a meditation group, this body was positioned in half lotus. It kind of hurt. But then, observing the hurt, I realized that it’s only pain if labeled as ‘pain.’ Ultimately, it’s just a feeling, a sensation, and even if it is ‘painful,’ it most definitely does not have to equate to suffering. The hurt/pain experienced in that circle ultimately faded away as awareness shifted to listening to the group conversation. The experience was about whatever the body was feeling, but it was more about the intellectual and spiritual web us bodies were collectively weaving together.

So not only did this supposed pain dissipate as a result of shifting the focus, but it also vanished because I stopped labelling it as pain. I realized that ultimately it was just a feeling – neither good nor bad. And, best of all, contextualizing the feeling with the understanding that the posture helps to open the hips and allows this body to more comfortable sit in meditation for longer periods of time…well then it’s just clearly for the greater good!

As best as I can guess, sitting in meditation is one of the most peaceful and universal activities human bodies can engage in. You can pretty much never go wrong sitting in meditation. Sure, you might feel called to contribute in a more tangible way or provide some sort of service, and perhaps it’d be best if you did, but ultimately – who would ever fault a meditator? After all, how many of the problems in this world come from over-activity and over-stimulation, from people feeling overwhelmed by all the things they have to do and additionally being unable to control the mind to focus on the abundance of goodness flowing everywhere? Meditation abundantizes life. And yes hoping to coin abundantize unless it’s already a word, in which case – Hallelujah 🙂 And if not, Hallelujah! Abundance, abundance, abundance. Sit. Breathe, smile, go slowly. So simple, so easy. Bananas!

Yummy fruits and vegetables. Hooray for health and compassion and human flourishing!

Smile! You’re on the Universe’s Camera 🙂

Alas…pain. Who needs it, right? Yet, how good does it feel to endure a bit of pain for the greater good? Just like lifting weights or running long distances, you want to stop and you want to give up, but even more than that desire to quit is that desire to excel and to grow and to expand and to become better and better and stronger and more abundant. So we push through the pain.

As Transformer’s wisdom tells us, “No sacrifice, no victory.” No pain, no gain. Just be sure that the pain has meaning. Any time you experience pain, realize it does have meaning! Whether you consciously and voluntarily enter into the pain, as is the case in the gym or perhaps sitting on an semi-uncomfortable yoga posture, or whether it’s sporadically forced upon you, when you connect the pain with meaning it becomes your greatest teacher and friend in the universe.

Everything is here to serve you! Everyone and everything is conspiring to you help you in all kinds of wonderful ways 🙂

In the spirit of Easter and Good Friday, we can consider Jesus’ pain. He carried a huge cross and wore a crown of thorns and was ultimately nailed to the cross and probably beaten and who knows what else. Yet, did he suffer? Or, perhaps, was it just painful? If he remained connected with His Higher Purpose and Father in Heaven, then very likely it was simply painful for him, but not suffering. He understood that the pain was for the greater good, and because he stood for a principle much greater than his small physical self, he was basically fearless in his pursuit. When you’re pursuing something pure that is good for all, such as Truth, Peace, Love, Joy, Forgiveness, Understanding…you receive the pleasure of strength from an awesome Power. And connected with that Power you can transcend any pain and realize that the physical body is simply an instrument for the Divine and nothing you have to be attached to or afraid of losing.

Be free in realizing a pure purpose, and love the pain, for it’s all a gift, perfect for you in the present moment 🙂

Yet, I wonder…embracing non-judgment…and accepting ignorance of “What is the best for everyone,”…then whose to say where the potential lies?

Objectively…I’m kind of willing to say that more smiles and laughter are good. Same with singing and dancing. Smiles, laughter, singing, and dancing, these are highly conscious activities that are expression of freedom and creativity and connect with some of the highest human faculties. What’s everyone want more of? Joy! And what is more objective expression of joy than smiles, laughter, singing, and dancing?

So then…if we’re here to bring more joy into the world, let’s be the change we want to see in the world! Then the duty comes to you smiling, laughing, singing and dancing more and more. Quite the duty…ugh such a drag of a responsibility 😉

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In the past, I’ve freaked out pretty hard about the awesomeness of the Present Moment, and perhaps that is a skill – to personally be able to be aware of the miracle and awesomeness and wonder of the Here & Now, and then even another skill is to be able to share that awareness with people and bring them into the miracle. Yet, what does that awareness lead to? What’s the purpose of it, and does it add as much value as simply increasing the amount of smiles, laughter, singing and dancing in the world?

The great thing about a moment or two or twenty thousand of an awareness of the awesomeness of the Here & Now, the Infinite Goodness and Oneness of Creation, is that it frees you from a lot of egoic concerns. For example, since having these types of experiences, I no longer a desire to accumulate material possessions. I prefer wearing plain white clothes and eating simple foods like oats, hemp seeds, and bananas. I don’t even mind sleeping on the floor. And trust me when I say I used to be obsessed with material possessions. I’d buy all sorts of trinkets and clothing and shoes that I thought would ‘help me’ be better in the world. But that was all from the paradigm of separation. When you realize the awesomeness of the moment, you no longer concern yourself so much with the opinion of people – you free yourself from judgment! – instead you align yourself with higher principles such as the spiritual awakening and conscious evolution of humanity. You align yourself with Peace, Joy, Love, Happiness, Health, Harmony, Learning, Growth, Service, Generosity, Openness, etc. It’s not longer about “What’s in it for me?” but the attitude becomes “How can I serve? What can I give?” So you are so free! Because you realize that you’re inclining yourself more and more towards goodness and giving, so if you die tomorrow who cares? You were doing good. You were being good. You were loving. You were giving your best.

And this happens moment to moment to moment.

Sometimes during the day you might think ‘selfishly’ and think ‘I want food’ or ‘I’m tired’ or ‘I look good,’ and those thoughts are kinda the ego peaking back through. Nonetheless, the body thrives with proper food and sleep and movement. So, if you perceive the body as a vessel for goodness to flow through, then caring for the body is certainly important for optimizing the goodness and service that flows. No need to fault ‘yourself’ for wanting to care for the body and brain and feed it rich physical and mental nutrients. You can only give what you have, so give ‘yourself’ the best and you can share that best abundantly!

Identity. Depending how you identify ‘yourself,’ you can be abundantly free or dreadfully imprisoned. If you are just the human body, sorry but you’re fucked! Ha, right? If you are more than the body, if you are spirit, consciousness, one with life, energy – well then, now we’re talking. Now you’re free. Hard to say one is right or wrong, who really knows? So believe what empowers you. Believe that which sets you free! Because, as Jesus said, “You shall know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free!” What beliefs set you free? What beliefs liberate you from fear and allow to fully thrive and flourish as an abundantly wonderful and joyous being?

Believe the best. Expect the best. Be the best. Trust that it’s all for good.

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As for this Present Moment…the one moment…it’s liberating. Not crippling. Worry is crippling. “Don’t worry, be happy.” Easier said tahn done. Alas, you don’t have to look around you and sin and destruction and evil everywhere. If you were to see all that, you’d be granting yourself an immense amount of knowledge and understanding, perhaps even omniscience. Are you omniscience? If not, then judge not. Let it be 🙂

If you are omniscient…now playing around with this belief…maybe the omniscience is “It’s all for good. I’m one with all of it, completely eternal and immortal, invincible and indestructible, here to play and have fun, love and give and serve and enjoy everyone and everything and flow abundantly.” Something like that…maybe that’s your Absolute Omniscient Truth…but who knows. Play with it 🙂

Believing is seeing. What you believe, you will see. What do you want to see? For a while now, I’ve had the desire to see Beauty, Divinity, Spirit, God in All. Sometimes I live with this awareness, sometimes I don’t. Really, rarely do I tune into this awareness, but when I do it’s pretty awesome. It generally yields complete relaxation and some abundant joy. And…the great thing about seeing…you can only see in the Present Moment!

Seeing…such are the seers…”They live in wisdom who see the Self in All and All in them.” Mmm…Oneness?

How to live in Oneness? Detaching completely from form can help. “If someone asks of you your tunic, give him your cloak as well.” Or, just give it all away. Even food! I renounced using money for a 6 month period of living…and reflecting back on it, it does seem like the time when I was most connected with the Present Moment and the Oneness of All Life and the Goodness of Creation. Now I use money minimally, largely because I have a minimal amount of it ;-), but now I wonder if returning to that lifestyle makes sense. ‘Having money’ perpetuates the ego / a sense of separation in many ways. Alas, in the Present Moment this body is standing at a computer with simple clothes on and a gratitude rock in the pocket, not too much ‘I can give to others’ aside from hugs and smiles, which is perhaps why I feel very free right now 🙂 Ahhh, liberation.

Thinking about some of the most compelling teachers I know, whether living or ‘dead,’ ha dead yeah right ;-), I’m pretty sure none of them use money. Did Jesus? Buddha? Human beings…compelling examples…why not strive to emulate these holy, happy, healthy, worthy ideals? Then again, there are other wonderful role models I can think of like Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy…people who speak to thousands of people and share empowering and liberating ideas to help people live more joyous, abundant lives. Perhaps there are many wonderful ways to serve! And with whatever one does or has, it’s important that you have what you have to fulfill your higher purpose, and you do what you do to fulfill your higher purpose. As it’s been said, “Live a fully dedicated life.”

I like to think my life is dedicated to becoming more conscious and aware / realizing God Always / Becoming God-Conscious / Achieving Cosmic Consciousness, yet sometimes these aspirations to higher, holier consciousness take steps back, and I can even be aware of these steps back as I’m taking them. Like, I’ve wondered, would an enlightened person eat peanut butter? And recently I’ve thought that they may or they may not, but what’s certain is that they would eat is with deep appreciation and gratitude. Perhaps every action is performed with deep appreciation and gratitude. The enlightened person might just be someone free of the disease of ‘taking-for-grantedness.’ How wonderful it is to live in a state where you cherish each and every moment of experience and wonder at it all embracing a sort of divine ignorance in which you’re aware of the mysterious yet totally abundant and loving nature of God Present Here & Now and Forever. And I wonder…is such a state of being sustainable? Perhaps…perhaps. 😉

Well then…time for one of my favorite questions to seal the deal…

What matters most?

Who knows! My guess is, the present moment! The quality of experience right here and right now! There are no guarantees beyond this moment. This is it. The time is now and we are here! And now I become more conscious of the breath. And the smile. And the eyebrows flashing up and down dancing in happiness. “Suddenly I become aware of every step.” Ah, what a life, Thich Nhat Hanh, to be aware of every step. And yet the yang of the world can so easily pull us away from that consciousness in every step…I digress.

What matters most?

Love. Compassion, Kindness. Gentleness towards ‘yourself,’ the human body you’re granted responsibility for while it’s alive, and gentleness towards other human bodies and all forms of life. Joy, for me, seems to come as I show and realize greater love towards everyone and everything. This love manifests in a variety of ways. The 5 love languages…acts of service, words of affirmation, gifts, physical touch, quality time…mmm that’d be a fun 30 day experiment to simply focus balancing each day by dancing between engaging in those 5 different love languages. Expressions of love! What could be better?

What matters most?

This moment! Love. Gratitude. Feeling good. When you feel good, no matter what you’re doing, it’s good. And this isn’t to say get high on drogas. But hey, maybe that’s right for you. Who knows? Feeling good by utilizing the gift of consciousness that you are. Utilizing that Power that is You! To focus on gratitude, on abundance, on beauty, on grace, on forgiveness and compassion and connection to one and all. To appreciate and revere life and creation and the universe and God. The Natural Way. Feel Good 🙂 And if you want, find something to dedicate your life too, and plan each day so that it can realize that dream more and more. The Universe and God want us to dream big dreams, and I think one of the biggest dreams is that all human beings become conscious of consciousness itself, so that we realize our Divine Nature and the awesomeness of the Universe and our Power to create and love and grow and learn and change for the best! The dream is for all of us to love one another like we love that person in our life who is dearest to us, whether a brother, mother, sister, father, or ourselves…to love all equally abundantly! Like a Universal Family. No Separation. It’s a shift in consciousness, and as big as the dream might be, the best part is that it always starts and ends with ‘You.’ Of course, along the journey your conception of ‘You’ might change and almost certainly will change as you become more conscious and aware, yet that’s all part of the fun 🙂

Perhaps the most liberating sentence I’ve ever read was something like this…

“The best thing you can do for everyone is to become enlightened.” The best thing you can do for all of us is to raise your consciousness and awareness. Sounds like a selfish focus, but it’s also entirely selfless. Because that’s the best way you can serve! Becoming more conscious and aware means experiencing and realizing more love, more peace, more joy, and the more you cultivate those abundant qualities, the more you share them abundantly! So the journey of becoming more conscious and aware does seem like a worthy cause.

What are the next steps along the journey? Well…if you want more joy in your life…if you want more anything in your life…you’re going to have to make some space for it, which means you might have to give something up. You might even have to undergo a ‘pain period’ where perhaps you flex a bit of your mental muscles to overcome the body’s desire to rest complacently. Personally, I’m fairly confident that eliminating processed foods including wheat, dairy, and sugar from the list of foods one consumes is a most definite step towards higher consciousness. At some point, I think eliminating consuming meats is also on the journey, but this time not necessarily for greater health/energy reasons but more so because one is growing in compassion towards all living beings and seeks to act compassionately towards all. That being said, I think there is a way to eat an animal compassionately, so perhaps rather the elevation of preferences would be to not purchase animal meat, because that act perpetuates the system of slaughter and violence etc. and not sure if it is possible to compassionately slaughter an animal, but if it is, I’d love to witness you doing it 😉 Always open to learning! (I guess that’s what Jewish Kosher ‘laws’ are all about…)

Alas! Steve Pavlina has been a great teacher for me on the journey to become more conscious and aware (wow seeing 2222 now…love it 🙂 Hallelujah!) A foundation for becoming more conscious and aware is to increase the amount of compassion in your life you show towards yourself and all living beings. More and more, lead with love and compassion and act with gentleness and universal kindness and forgiveness to all. That’s an abundant way to become more conscious 🙂 As always, baby steps. Step by step by step by step we go along this journey.

I have a theory that by simply treating your physical body with unflinching compassion and unconditional love and non-violence, I think that might definitely reflect out towards your actions towards all beings. At least, starting with yourself is always good 🙂 Right now, this moment, I’m noticing that these fingers hurt a wee-bit from all this typing, and now I wonder if non-violence means ‘no-pain,’ and eh…who knows? Perhaps it means n meaninglessness pain, but a bit of physical pain for the greater good (how I see typing this goes), that can be great! I mean, clearly Jesus wasn’t the biggest advocate of no-physical-pain-for-self…haha if that was his core guiding principle then there’s no way he would have donned a crown of thorns or carried a cross or been nailed to it…oww. Ahh but just writing that opens the heart, such a wonderful example of the great love and potential that lives in each one of us 🙂 To die for another, that is a sure expression of love! Undergoing a bit of physical pain for the benefit of another, why not? The body heals 🙂 Nonetheless…perhaps the key to non-violence towards the self means contextualizing all pain, so that it’s connected with your Higher Purpose. Like Jesus was physically suffering while aligned with Serving / Glorifying God and the Truth, soooo obviously that takes precedence 🙂

Freedom and Peace come when you align with serving something greater than the small physical human body. Align with glorifying God and serving the Truth no matter what and you’ll willingly carry a cross,at least that’s what the example of Jesus suggest. Hallelujah!

A great question that can spur a lot of introspection…What are you willing to die for? Now consider, how can you live for it? Studying martyrs is inspiring business, and a great way to become more conscious and aware and overcome fear and realize your Power and Potential!

Becoming more conscious and aware…Higher Consciousness! God / Truth / the Very Best rests abundantly at the top 🙂

Breathe and smile. Build your foundation on some rocks, align, let go, flow. Trust completely. Live a fully dedicated life.

What are you willing to dedicate your life to? And…let’s pretend…you only have 5 years left to live! Because really, who knows? Even 5 years is a lot.

What are you willing to dedicate the next 5 years of your life to? How will this dedication of yours manifest internally with the quality of your consciousness and externally in the quality of your actions?

What would I like to experience even more of? And what would I like everyone and all to experience more of?

Joy! Happiness! Abundance! Connection! Freedom!!! Lightness and Ease. Health. Loving Acceptance of What Is in the Present Moment. Harmony. Feelings of Significance and Contribution. Flow. Creative Expression. Laughter! A sense of growth and becoming better and better each day, learning, growing, expanding, evolving! Wonderful, loving, joyous, relationships with people, plants, animals, all life! An awareness of the interconnectedness of everything and ‘my’ oneness with all.

Eckhart Tolle once wrote that the key to happiness and success comes down to three words: One with Life. When you live in the oneness, your identity expands way beyond the physical body and brain, but you begin to identify with the whole of whatever you’re experiencing in the Present Moment. And then you realize that any judgment is ultimately self-judgment..hence Jesus’s wise words : “Judge not lest yet not judge, for as ye judge so shall ye be judged.” It all reflects back to you!

Being aware of The Secret, the idea that thoughts create reality, means that in some way, you’re responsible for experiencing and manifesting whatever is with and within you in the present moment. And then to also realize that in some way, the present moment is absolutely perfect for you, perfect for your learning, growth, healing, and evolution…that’s magical place to be. There then is no bad, but only a higher good. Even pain, suffering, disease, illness, heartbreak, hunger, grief, anger, fear…all of it is your teacher. Everything you experience throughout the day, each and every moment – it’s perfect for you! It’s just what the Divine Doctor ordered. So gulp down that medicine with a smile on your face trusting completely that it’s for your greater good, also knowing that your greater good is the greater good of the whole!

You can only give what you have. So what do you want to give? Cultivate it yourself! These bodies are amazing instruments and tools for consciousness to flow through. “I’m” beginning to realize that the body can be (and possibly always is) a vessel for divine energy to flow through. And if you don’t like the word divine, it’s a vessel for love to flow through, for peace and joy and happiness to enter in and flow through. As you experience the peace, it flows outward to you. The internal and external balance. Yin-Yang Harmony 🙂

If you don’t like what you’re experiencing, you can always change it. You have the power! Pratipraksha Bhavana, perhaps one of ‘my’ very favorite teachings I learned at Yoga Teacher Training, suggests that you can only have one thought at a time. So if you notice your thoughts aren’t vibing well with you, replace them with a positive thought. That is, change the yin. You have the power! However, sometimes, depending on where you’re at along the journey, changing the yin can be tough, especially in a ‘toxic’ environment. In that case, change the yang! Move the body, go outside, go inside, call a friend, read a book, listen to a song – change something about your external condition to free you from that feeling/vibration that might not be all-that-enjoyable. You’ve got the power!

As you can guess, what’s significant here is you have the power! Whether you change the internal conditions to connect more with the Kingdom and that Happy Place inside or if you shift your external reality, you can always come to a place of Peace. It is always with you. Deep breathing and smile are generally liberating. As is dancing, laughing, or singing. Fake it till you make it 😉

Fake it until you become it!

We are on a journey of becoming. Learning, growing, expanding, evolving – becoming and realizing the very best that inside us and beyond us. Sharing is caring. Gratitude feels good.

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Let’s return to the title of this post…”A Place for Everything.”

Whatever happens in the external word, it’s ehhhh. Whatever you witness, accept it. Even if it’s violence, cuss words, lewd behavior, ultimately – who are we to judge? Embracing our own ignorance is super liberating, because if you accept complete ignorance then ultimately you disable yourself from judgment. Literally, if you are completely ignorant and aware of complete ignorance (knowing nothing but knowing that you know nothing ;-)), then you are incapable of judgment. You cannot judge! You can only observe, witness, and take action in the flow.

What’s real is experience. Trust your experience. And, as much as the Yang of our worlds are constantly shifting – external conditions are impermanent – perhaps there is an essence that we can connect with always. If there is one thing that is permanent, it’s likely something of the Yin nature, something internal, like spirit that flows through everything. Like the Oneness with Life, as Eckhart Tolle says. The Oneness of Experience.

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Think of yourself as a vessel to flow through. A vessel for all goodness to flow through, a vessel to increase feelings of goodness, warmth, connection, harmony, abundance, flow, creativity, freedom, laughter, joy to flow through. When you think about how much you like a person, realize that what you like about that person is the energy they carry – the quality of consciousness. So too, people like you because of the energy you carry, which can be called the principles you align with. If you’re a practicing Christian and pray every morning and read the Bible and think about Jesus often, people enjoy your presence because you’re connecting with very powerful principles like selfless love and service, fearlessness with faith, being willing to give your life for another – at least, these are some of the principles that come through in the teachings and life of Jesus. Significantly, many of the teachings come through the living. Anyone can say the same words, but can they practice them? Thus a life well-lived comes down to practice. How much do you practice unconditional love? Unconditional forgiveness? Non-judgment and loving acceptance? More than words, let’s focus on actions 🙂 It’s not about how much we know, but how well we live.

You can only give what you have. And what do we all really want most? Find that within yourself. Carry joy in your heart and unconditional love for all, and imagine all the goodness you are giving each and every moment. Even if you do not tangible observe the positive ripple effects of your alignment with love and peace and joy, trust that you are doing Wonderful Work.

And free yourself too! You don’t need to judge. You don’t need to create us vs. them dichotomies. Forget about separation. Let yourself become of the Spirit that is in you that is also in All. Resist Nothing. Love Everything 🙂

Me thinks the Present Moment. The very best is Here and Now. If God is ever, God is most definitely in the Present Moment. Goodness, Beauty, Abundance, Flow, Freedom, Joy…if they are ever…they are now!

These great dimensions of life that we all desire – Peace, Happiness, Joy, Harmony, etc. – are available to us every moment. No matter what we are doing, we can experience a sense of joy, ease, lightness, grace, abundance, connection, compassion, kindness, gentleness, the list goes on and on. Any positive quality that you desire to experience, it is available to you right here, right now – no excuses!

No matter what you are doing – you can experience joy. Thus, it is not about what you are doing. The significant dimension of life lies in the how. You can be doing anything you want – whether serving at a soup, writing a book, teaching a class, exercising, pooping – whatever it is, you can do it either with love or you can do it with fear. You can perform your duties with a sense of caring and compassion or you can act with scorn and malice. The choice is yours. So whether or not you volunteer 5 days of the week isn’t the issue at hand. That volunteering is detrimental to yourself and society if you do it in a state of pride, anger, or fear. As much as volunteering might be an agreed upon plus for society, if the quality of your consciousness is aligned with a weak attractor pattern / negative vibration…i.e. you’re not accepting or enjoying what you’re doing :-)…then forget about it!

More important that what you’re doing is the how you are doing it. How are you performing your actions? With gentleness, ease, grace, and joy? Then Hallelujah! Whether it’s taking out the garbage or climbing a tree, go for it. Prioritize the quality of your consciousness, enjoy your present moment, and whatever action flows from there will be good. Lead with love.

If you find it challenging to come into a state of acceptance or joy, see if you can bring a smile to the face. Almost certainly you can! Then see if you can deepen the breathe, breathing in the abundance of goodness and feeling better and better with each exhale.

Gandhi is one of my favorite heroes of history, and I think his motto, “Do it with joy or not at all,” is spot on. More significant than the objectivity of your actions is your subjective experience of them. Are you living with joy in the heart? Smile!

Emphasize the HOW and the WHAT that follows will always be good 🙂

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And just to share another favorite Gandhi quote, “Full effort is full victory.” Work hard, be your best, accept the greater challenge, and carry on with a smile on the face and joy in the heart. Abundance!!!